GameStop’s Ethereum NFT Sales Dwarf Coinbase NFT in Two Days

By Sander Lutz

GameStop’s new Ethereum-based NFT marketplace has been live in beta for a little over 48 hours. It isn’t even offering gaming NFTs yet, which will be the marketplace’s planned core offering.

Even so, the video game retailer’s new platform has already seen nearly twice the all-time trading volume of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace, which has been open since May.

Since Monday’s launch, GameStop NFT has seen at least 3,167 ETH in trading volume, according to data published on the marketplace website. That figure, equalling almost $3.5 million, represents the trading volume for the marketplace’s top 50 collections, the only data publicly available, which means GameStop’s total trading volume marketplace-wide is likely higher. 

In contrast, since its lackluster launch, Coinbase’s NFT marketplace has generated a total of 1,704 ETH in trading volume, or roughly $1.8 million, according to the latest data from Dune Analytics.

Of course, GameStop NFT’s early performance pales in comparison to that of leading NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, which did $16 million in trading volume on Wednesday alone.

But the fact that the video game retailer has so quickly eclipsed the all-time volume on a $12 billion Web3-native company like Coinbase in the NFT space is not insignificant. 

Since launching the marketplace on Monday, GameStop stock (GME) has risen 10%, closing on Wednesday at $141.28. (The notorious meme stock is still down 26% over the past 12 months.)

NFTs are blockchain-based tokens that show ownership over digital or physical assets, and GameStop's NFTs are on the Ethereum blockchain. The company is taking a 2.25% commission on its NFT sales, so as Ars Technica notes, the actual revenue for GameStop thus far is small.

GameStop NFT currently offers only artwork NFTs, but intends to launch a suite of gaming NFTs, which can be used as interactive items within video games. In February, GameStop launched a $100 million token incentive fund with Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Immutable X to support development of NFT-compatible video games and products. The marketplace website notes that gaming NFTs on Immutable X are “coming soon,” and currently teases 13 NFT-compatible games that will have products available on the platform for purchase. 

Coinbase’s NFT marketplace, meanwhile, has struggled mightily to attract business, after garnering 150 active users on its first day. The platform has added a number of new features to the site since launch, but those have largely failed to attract a sizable customer base.

In the time since GameStop NFT launched on Monday, for example, Coinbase NFT has processed $31,000 in sales: that’s less than 1% of GameStop NFT’s business.

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